The present invention relates to the field of hydrocarbon upgrading processes. More particularly, the invention relates to upgrading cracked gasoline to high quality gasoline and valuable petrochemicals.
It is well known to those skilled in the art that aromatics and olefins are valuable industrial chemicals which are useful in a variety of ways in the petrochemical industry. It is also well known in the art to convert hydrocarbon streams to aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylene (hereinafter referred to as "BTX") and light olefins such as ethylene, propylene, and butylenes (hereinafter referred to as "light olefins").
Recent efforts to convert hydrocarbons to more valuable petrochemicals have focused on converting hydrocarbons to aromatics and olefins by aromatization using zeolite containing catalysts.
The conversion of cracked gasoline to BTX and light olefins can become important if gasoline specifications require reductions in C.sub.5 and heavier olefin concentrations and economics drive conversion of C.sub.5 -C.sub.7 olefins, of relatively low value, to higher value BTX and light olefins. It is desirable to improve processes for the aromatization of C.sub.5 -C.sub.7 olefins contained in cracked gasoline by increasing the yield of BTX and light olefins and making the processes more efficient. Therefore, a process for the conversion of cracked gasoline to BTX and light olefins which results in increased yields of BTX and light olefins from the C.sub.5 -C.sub.7 portion of the cracked gasoline, and increased efficiency, would be a significant contribution to the art.